


The End of a Rewarding Apprenticeship

by BubuBORG



Series: Team Medi: Discord Prompts [4]
Category: Star Trek, TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms, The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Apprenticeship, Gen, Promotion, Star Trek AU, Team Medi, Tolkien Discord Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-16
Updated: 2018-08-16
Packaged: 2019-06-28 01:30:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15697386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BubuBORG/pseuds/BubuBORG
Summary: Kíli takes an offer and gives one to Sam.





	The End of a Rewarding Apprenticeship

**Author's Note:**

> Part of the Tolkien Discord Prompt. 
> 
> Takes place several months before “Acorn Day”.

_He was not like his cousin_ , Samwise thought. 

 

He darted left and right down the Engineering deck corridor, dodging crewmen as he did so, which considering his shorter stature, was no mean feat. 

He wasn’t much like his brother either, he realized, once Dr. Fili took Dr. Nat’s place.In the intervening months on the _USS Mediterranean_ , Samwise Gamgee was able to take a hard look on the effects being Out Here, as he inwardly referred to space in general, had on one from his world.

All the same, he was grateful that someone from home was showing him the ropes of navigating the Engineering room.Not the mechanics, after all; he picked up on that well enough, which perplexed him.Hobbits were not supposed to be well versed in machinery.Especially after What Happened—

 

But Samwise stopped that train of thought before it left the station.

 

He found his access port and stepladder (The ship was riddled with them since he and the other two had come aboard) and removed the cover. 

No problems there.Conduit was connected fine and dandily. 

 

“ _Kili to Lt. Gamgee_ ,” the comm spoke up. 

Sam slapped his comm badge and replied, “Gamgee here.”

 _“I found the problem.It was in Junction T-4,”_ Kili replied, slightly sheepishly. _“I have Cadet Naro crawling through the Jeffries Tube so you don’t have to.Come on back._ ”

Sam shrugged and sighed.“All right.Heading on back.”

Sam walked back into Main Engineering, and through the ethereal light the warp core lent to the area.He found Kili in his little alcove just off of the main chamber, with his own set of controls and overrides. 

And the little picture frame on the corner.Sam had caught him giving the photo an affectionate glance.

“Here’s the repair list,” Sam spoke up, causing Kili’s head to jerk up to face him.

“Hmm?Oh, thanks,” Kili replied, taking the PADD from the hobbit.

Sam glanced a look at the photo.“Is this her?” he asked, informally.

“Kili smiled and nodded.“That’s my Tory.”

Sam gave Kili a knowing glance.“Redheads.”

“Like fire,” Kili sighed.He turned to face Sam.“It’s been quite a year for the Engineering team,” he said.

“Aye, and with all the time out in the weeds, we’re better for it,” Sam replied.“Still, it’s good to be back and close to home.”

Kili nodded.“I wanted to talk to you about the Engineering team, actually.You know, Cadets K’gar and Naro are being rotated off the roster to return to the Academy.”

“Right, and we’re getting crew rotations as well,” Samwise replied, looking down at the chart.“It’s nothing we can’t handle, we’ll just run them like you ran me and it’ll be smooth sailing.”Samwise looked up.

Something was different about Kili’s face.Though still boyish after all the intervening decades, his full yet trimmed beard was dark with some star streaks of silver, which also shone through his dark, bound mane.

“Are… you all right, Commander?” Samwise asked.

“No, it’s fine,” Kili said.“I got a communique from the ASDB, with an…offer.”

Sam’s stomach turned cold.“What kind of offer?” he asked.

“See, they’re starting to go through the data from the _Enterprise_ regarding that so-called ‘unstoppable’ foe they encountered way out in the J25 system,” Kili said.“What they didn’t say was that it was the same aliens that destroyed the El-Aurian homeland.”

 

“Oh.” Samwise said. 

 

“Anyways, they’re spitballing through the data and they want all their best designers throughout the fleet back on board to design a counter for them.They’re practically screaming for me to come back to the fold.”

Samwise hated to play coy.But he didn’t have much leverage; he and Kili weren’t on as friendly terms as, say, Lt. Commander K’gar.“So…what have you decided?”

Kili looked at Samwise.Samwise’s face was also boyish despite his years and fatherhood, but the lines around his eyes betrayed the things he’d seen, the burdens he’d suffered.Even time and the easy life in Starfleet hadn’t erased them yet.Kili nodded once.

“You know, there’s nothing that I do, really, that any other engineering officer could pull off,” he said, returning to his console.“It’s all management and people skills, keeping the lot of you on task.Anyone could do it.”

“Aye,” Sam agreed.

 

Kili looked back at Samwise.“ _You_ could do it, Sam.”

 

“Right,” Samwise scoffed.“A Hobbit, the Chief Engineer of a starship.The things people’d say!They’d say I’d lost my hobbit mind Out Here, getting ideas, doing things…”

“Do you think they wouldn’t say the same things down in Erebor?” Kili reminded him, not unkindly.

“Well, I mean—“

“There’s no need to fall back on tradition or preconception, ‘Out Here’, as you call it,” Kili reminded the Hobbit.“You have a talent, just as I did, all those years ago when they brought me and Fee back to life.And—you’re so much braver than we were, choosing to take your family with you.We didn’t have a choice.”

Samwise began to formulate another argument, then stopped, and peered at the Dwarf.“Are you offering me the job?” he asked.

Kili nodded.“Yup.”

“All right, well,” Samwise started up again.“See, that still can’t fly because no rank below full Lieutenant is qualified for Chief Engineer no-how.”

“Well,” Kili looked Sam up and down.“I guess we’ll have to fix that.I’m promoting you.”

Samwise’s eyes bugged slightly.“I—“

“ _Sam_ ,” Kili said firmly.“A wise captain once told me that conquering fears are what earn you respect.So for Mahal’s sake, _take the promotion_.”

 

Samwise allowed himself a private smile as he put his hand on the Chief Engineer’s console.Then he looked back up at Kili.“The extra hours,” he said.“Rosie’ll kill me.”

“She’ll be delighted,” Kili retorted.“Her husband, the Chief Engineer.”

 

Sam extended a pointing finger at Kili.“ _You_ have to help me tell her,” he demanded.“So’s you can take the blame when it goes pear-shaped.”

“All right,” Kili said.“Let’s go, we’ll tell her right now!”

 

“Really?” Samwise replied.

 

“Yeah, sure,” Kili said.“I know a thing or two about redheads…”


End file.
